KARACHI (PR) The executive committee of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society held its meeting on Wednesday at Islamabad under the chair of Acting President Mehtab Khan and adopted a resolution to condemn the delaying tactics on the part of various government departments and functionaries including the AGPR to sabotage the decision of prime minister to pay off the long outstanding dues of the advertising agencies. The All Pakistan Newspapers Society stated that for the last three year, the prime minister had been sanctioning special grants to settle the payments of its accredited advertising agencies for ads released in the print media during July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2008 and every time these funds lapsed due to bureaucratic hurdles by the AGPR. The APNS was of the opinion that the AGPR was deliberately attempting to damage the government press relations. The exchange committee of the APNS called upon the prime minister to personally intervene and avert the looming crisis that the newspaper and advertising industry will be facing due to non-payment of these dues. The executive committee noted the payment of these dues met the criteria set by the APNS and the ministry of information. The APNS reiterated it had never insisted payment of non-genuine bills. The dues in question were based on invoices duly approved end verified by the PID. The executive committee also discussed problems faced by regional publications of the Punjab, periodicals and the issues relating to Balochistan based member publications. The committee was apprised that the government of the Punjab had curtailed its advertisements to majority of smaller publications and the ads were being released to publications on political and personal whims of the releasing authorities. The committee was informed that the quantum of ads to Faisalabad publications had been further reduced. It urged the Punjab government to address the issues of smaller and regional publications. The meeting was attended by Mehtab Khan, Acting President Umer Mujib Sharri, Vice President, Sarmad Ali, Secretary General, Rameeza Majid Nizami, Joint Secretary, Mumtaz A Tahir (D/Aftab), Waseem Ahmed (D/Awam, Quetta), Ghulam Akbar (D/Al-Akhbar), Arshad A Zuberi (D/Business Recorder), Abdul Rashid Ghazi (D/Business Report), Syed Faseih Iqhal (D/Balochistan Times), Ms Fauzia Shaheen (M/Dastak), Tahir Owais (D/Dawn), Najamuddin Sheikh (D/Deyanat), Mukhtar Aqil (D/Jurat Khi), Imtinan Shahid (D/Khabrain), Mushtaq A Qureshi (M/Naey Ufaq), Sardar Khan Niazi (M/Naya Rukh), Rukhsana Saulat Saleemi (W/Nikhar), Gohar Zahid Malik (Pakistan Observer), Ilyas Shakir (D/Qaumi Akhbar), Dr Waqar Yousuf Azeemi (M/Roohani Digest), Riaz Ahmed Mansuri (M/The Cricketer), Irfan Ather (D/Tijrat), Pir Sufaid Shah Hamdard (D/Wahdat), Sharif Farooq (D/Jihad) and Younus Riaz (D/Beopar). Humayon Gulzar (D/Sayadat) and Imran Ather (D/Tijarat) attended the meeting as special observers.